The Justice Department released a document today that characterized criticism by Apple and publishers of a controversial price-fixing settlement as “self-serving” and ill-founded. The Department also pointed to recent ventures by Google and Microsoft as evidence that the e-book market is thriving and that Amazon’s dominant position has been overstated.

The Department of Justice is on its heels after Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) told them to call off their lawsuit in a Wall Street Journal op-ed piece that ran earlier this month.

There’s a lot in here, from how the DoJ perceives Apple’s role in all this, to responses to the Authors Guild, another outspoken critic of the settlement, and more. Suffice to say that the Department of Justice has not been convinced that its settlement wasn’t acting in the best interest of the public.